{"id":4526,"date":"2026-08-10T15:04:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T15:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/?post_type=furman-update&p=4526"},"modified":"2026-08-11T21:21:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:21:21","slug":"how-two-nonprofits-grew-their-impact-in-10-weeks","status":"publish","type":"furman-update","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/news\/how-two-nonprofits-grew-their-impact-in-10-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"How Two Nonprofits Grew Their Impact in 10 Weeks\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Melissa Charles\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Riley Institute Summer Experience (RISE)<\/a>\u00a0connects Furman students with Upstate organizations working on Greenville’s most pressing challenges. For\u00a010 weeks\u00a0each summer, RISE interns\u00a0work\u00a0full time with host organizations, building professional skills while expanding their\u00a0host’s\u00a0capacity for community impact.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the\u00a0high-quality work, fresh perspectives, and innovative insights these Furman students bring to their\u00a0internships,\u00a0the results go far beyond a summer project.\u00a0Greater Good Greenville<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Greenville Together<\/a>\u00a0are proof of what happens when the work outlasts the internship.<\/p>\n

Greater Good Greenville<\/h3>\n

Katy Smith, executive\u00a0director of Greater Good Greenville,\u00a0is entering her second year of\u00a0participating\u00a0in the RISE internship program, where she continues to engage interns to support\u00a0seasonal projects.<\/p>\n

Greater Good Greenville\u00a0is a nonprofit resource hub that\u00a0cultivates\u00a0the next generation of employees or volunteer leaders for nonprofits and philanthropic funders.\u00a0Last year, Greater Good Greenville hosted three\u00a0RISE\u00a0interns who showed up with their own passions and produced work the organization still relies on today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe RISE interns helped us with projects that are fundamental to our annual work plan and to our mission,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

Nathan Johnson\u00a0\u201927\u00a0focused on resource development and fundraising. He updated data from their philanthropic landscape study and surfaced\u00a0new findings<\/a>\u00a0on the rise of donor-advised\u00a0fund giving\u00a0in Greenville County.<\/p>\n

Harper Lumpkin \u201927 concentrated on justice and its role in urban design and city planning. Her project examined single-family home ownership in Greenville\u2019s District 25 and tracked how ownership has shifted from individual residents to corporate ownership. This data is still actively used by Greater Good Greenville and partners today.<\/p>\n

Betsy Rogers \u201926 pursued communications. Her work showcased nonprofit and philanthropic partners, connecting her to GirlUp GVL, where she later interned and now works full-time. The videos she created of community partners continued to be used months after she left. \u201cWe’re so proud of the three students we had last year that are all going to go on in some way to be connected to the work that they began at Greater Good Greenville,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

This summer, Greater Good Greenville\u00a0built\u00a0on\u00a0last\u00a0year’s momentum with two new interns. Kylie Friedman\u00a0\u201928\u00a0has been\u00a0helping\u00a0tell the stories of local nonprofits in support of GiveGreenville.org. Ben Thompson\u00a0\u201927\u00a0has been\u00a0updating\u00a0the philanthropic landscape study and assessing\u00a0how coalitions and networks drive change, locally and nationally, with findings presented to the advocacy roundtable at summer’s end.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it’s a research report that helps people view things differently,\u00a0an event that people experience,\u00a0or the Give Greenville platform,\u00a0there’s just more work than we can do,\u201d said\u00a0Smith.\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0RISE interns\u00a0help make it possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenville Together<\/h3>\n

Cody Carver, director of Greenville Together\u2014a collaborative effort designed\u00a0to address homelessness and housing instability across Greenville County\u2014is also in his second year of hosting a RISE intern.\u00a0When Greenville Together hosted their first RISE intern last summer, the organization had just launched. With limited staff, they needed an intern to help get things off the ground. What they\u00a0gained\u00a0exceeded every expectation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience that we had last year with our RISE intern was nothing short of fantastic,\u201d said\u00a0Carver.\u00a0\u201cThe intern was so competent and confident and just fit in so great with our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intern Gabrielle\u00a0Harvey\u00a0\u201927\u00a0took on the\u00a0organization’s\u00a0entire marketing and communications effort.\u00a0Beyond day-to-day tasks like social media, Gabby developed long-term strategies that\u00a0later helped\u00a0produce high-quality impact stories and videos and a full brand refresh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still seeing\u00a0the results and the impact of that\u00a0intern\u00a0being\u00a0housed at Greenville Together, even to this day,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Carver.<\/p>\n

The numbers back\u00a0up\u00a0Carver\u2019s assertion. When Gabby took over\u00a0their\u00a0social media\u00a0channels, Greenville Together had around 300 followers.\u00a0Now,\u00a0that number has\u00a0grown to over 1,500.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was truly blown away that a college sophomore student was able to come in\u00a0and write a very sophisticated and well-thought-out communications and marketing strategic plan on behalf of a multi-million-dollar\u00a0initiative,\u201d said\u00a0Carver.<\/p>\n

The internship revealed a real organizational need. Watching Gabby’s impact over three months made\u00a0it\u00a0clear that Greenville Together needed a dedicated marketing and communications specialist on staff\u00a0to ensure the community\u00a0remains\u00a0informed and engaged.<\/p>\n

The experience was strong enough to bring Greenville Together back for a second year\u00a0as a RISE host organization.<\/p>\n

Part of the success of the program has to do with\u00a0The Riley\u00a0Institute\u2019s close\u00a0mentorship of the RISE interns.\u00a0By carefully matching host\u00a0organizations with interns that fit their needs\u00a0and\u00a0guiding weekly sessions so students can process their work alongside peers, The Riley Institute is providing\u00a0a robust support system for its RISE participants and\u00a0building\u00a0a trusting relationship with host organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Riley Institute\u2019s program structure just really ensures that everyone is set up for success and takes a lot of the burden off of the host in terms of ensuring that everything is in place for the intern to be successful,\u201d said Carver.<\/p>\n

A Two-Way Investment<\/h3>\n

Both\u00a0Smith\u00a0and\u00a0Carver\u00a0see\u00a0the internship as a two-way investment. The organizations get meaningful help moving their missions forward. The students get real exposure to complex community challenges and space to discover how their own interests can drive change. That dynamic is built into how both leaders approach the work. They lean into each student\u2019s\u00a0interests, walk them through professional\u00a0situations,\u00a0and treat the experience as\u00a0intentional\u00a0mentorship.<\/p>\n

“If you’re ready to put in meaningful investment in the students, your results for your organization will be astonishing,” said\u00a0Smith.\u00a0“The\u00a0RISE interns\u00a0are passionate, smart and hardworking.”<\/p>\n

For\u00a0Carver, that investment looks like giving students direct exposure to one of Greenville’s most visible community challenges.<\/p>\n

“This is an opportunity for us to invest\u00a0in\u00a0the next generation of leaders,” said\u00a0Carver.<\/p>\n

Greenville’s nonprofit community is doing\u00a0hard work\u00a0with lean teams. RISE interns show up ready to help\u00a0expand and\u00a0amplify\u00a0these community\u00a0efforts.\u00a0For Greater Good Greenville and Greenville Together, the return on investment has been clear. The work\u00a0these interns do far\u00a0outlasts the summer, and so does the\u00a0impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Melissa Charles\u00a0 The\u00a0Riley Institute Summer Experience (RISE)\u00a0connects Furman students with Upstate organizations working on Greenville’s most pressing challenges. For\u00a010 weeks\u00a0each summer, RISE interns\u00a0work\u00a0full time with host organizations, building professional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4529,"template":"","update-categories":[51,96,103,49,121,115,46],"class_list":["post-4526","furman-update","type-furman-update","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","furman-update-category-applied-public-policy","furman-update-category-civic-participation","furman-update-category-economic-opportunity","furman-update-category-furman-innovation-lab","furman-update-category-leadership-development","furman-update-category-rise","furman-update-category-student-programs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/4526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/furman-update"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/4526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4586,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/4526\/revisions\/4586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"furman-update-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update-categories?post=4526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}